“Would you believe it broke on its own?” Vin answered.

De la Cruz glanced up. “I don’t know.”

“Well, it did.”

“Guess whatever you did might really have worked.”

“It did.” Vin rubbed his eyes with his free hand until his shoulder let out a holler he couldn’t ignore and he had to stop. “Let’s fucking hope it keeps, though.”

There was a pause and then De la Cruz looked at Gretchen. “I have a follow-up question for you, if you don’t mind. You stated to the medics that your name is Gretchen Capricio, but I have it down as Marie-Terese Boudreau. Would you feel comfortable helping me out a little about that?”

Gretchen did a thorough explanation of her situation, and as she spoke, Vin stared at her beautiful face and wished he could take all the pain from the past and the stress from the present away from her. She had shadows in her eyes and under them, but as he’d come to expect, her voice was strong and her chin up.

Man, he was in love with her.

The detective was shaking his head as she finished up. “I’m really sorry about all that. And I understand completely—although I do wish you’d been up-front in the beginning with us.”

“I was afraid of the press, mostly. My ex-husband’s in prison, but his family connections are all over the country…and some of them are in law enforcement. After what happened with my son, I don’t trust anyone—even those people with badges.”

“What made you decide to come clean tonight?”

Her eyes shifted to Vin. “Things are different and I’m leaving town. I’ll still let you know where I am, but…I have to get out of Caldwell.”

“After all this, I understand it—although we’re going to need to be able to reach you.”

“And I’ll come back anytime you need me.”

“Okay. And look, I’ll talk to my sergeant. Giving a false identity to the police is a crime, but under the circumstances…” He put his notebook away. “I also heard from the staff here that you told them you were his wife?”

“I wanted to stay with him.”

De la Cruz smiled a little. “I did that once. My wife and I were dating and she sliced her finger open with a knife cutting up a salad for dinner. When I took her to the ER, I lied and told them we were married.”

Gretchen lifted Vin’s hand to her lips and kissed it briefly. “I’m glad you understand.”

“I do. I really do.” The detective nodded at Vin. “So you two just started dating?”

“Yeah.”

“Guess your previous lady friend didn’t like it, did she.”

“Yeah…I had the ex-girlfriend from hell.” Literally.